Lluís Maria Corominas i Díaz (born 14 February 1963) is a Catalan lawyer, politician and a former member of the Parliament of Catalonia. He is currently awaiting trial on charges of disobedience for his role in the Catalan declaration of independence.

Early life

Corominas was born on 14 February 1963 in

Castellar del Vallès Castellar del Vallès is a Spanish municipality of Catalonia in the comarca of Vallès Occidental. It is located 7 km from Sabadell and 11 km from Terrassa, the comarca's two capitals. Other villages near Castellar del Vallès are ...

, Catalonia. He has a degree in law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a diploma in public administration management from ESADE.

Career

Corominas has worked as a lawyer for more than ten years. Corominas contested the 1991 local elections as a Convergence and Union (CiU) electoral alliance candidate in

and was elected. He was re-elected at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

local elections. He was mayor of Castellar del Vallès between 1992 and 2004 and vice-president of Vallès Occidental County Council from 1996 to 2003. Corominas was vice-president of Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation) and a national councillor of the Associació Catalana de Municipis (Catalan Association of Municipalities). He has also been vice-president of the Board of Trustees of the Fundación Ramon Trias Fargas (Ramon Trias Fargas Foundation). Corominas was secretary of the

Democratic Convergence of Catalonia The Democratic Convergence of Catalonia ( ca, Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya; , CDC), frequently shortened as Convergence ( ca, Convergència; ) was a Catalan nationalist, liberal political party in Catalonia (Spain), currently still exist ...

(CDC) from 2000 to 2004. He has been a member of the national executive committees of the CDC and Convergence and Union (CiU). Corominas contested the 2003 regional election as a CiU candidate in the Province of Barcelona and was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia. He was re-elected at the

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

regional elections. Corominas was elected Second Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia in September 2008, replacing Ramon Camp i Batalla. He was elected

First Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia The Board of the Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Mesa del Parlament) is the body responsible for the management of the Parliament of Catalonia. It is composed of the President of the Parliament of Catalonia, President of the Parliament, the two Vi ...

in December 2010. In December 2012 he was elected Second Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia. He was elected First Vice-President of the Parliament of Catalonia in October 2015. In July 2017 he became president of the Junts pel Sí group in parliament, replacing Jordi Turull.

Catalan independence crisis

In June 2017, President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont announced that a referendum on Catalan independence would be held on 1 October 2017. The Catalan Parliament passed legislation on 6 September 2017 authorising the referendum which would be binding and based on a simple majority without a minimum threshold. The following day

Constitutional Court of Spain The Constitutional Court ( es, Tribunal Constitucional) is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution, with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes made by any public body, central, regional, or local in Spa ...

suspended the legislation, blocking the referendum. The Spanish government put into effect Operation Anubis in order to disrupt the organisation of the referendum and arrested Catalan government officials. Despite this the referendum went ahead though it was boycotted by unionists and turnout was only 43%. 92% of those who voted supported independence. Around 900 people were injured as the

Spanish police Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

used violence to try to prevent voting in the referendum. On 27 October 2017 the Catalan Parliament declared independence in a vote boycotted by opposition MPs. Almost immediately the

Senate of Spain The Senate ( es, Senado) is the upper house of the Cortes Generales, which along with the Congress of Deputies – the lower chamber – comprises the Parliament of the Kingdom of Spain. The Senate meets in the Palace of the Senate in Madrid. Th ...

invoked article 155 of the constitution, dismissing Puigdemont and the Catalan government and imposing direct rule on Catalonia. The following day Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dissolved the Catalan Parliament and called for fresh regional elections on 21 December 2017. On 30 October 2017 Spanish Attorney General

José Manuel Maza José Manuel Maza Martín (23 October 1951 – 18 November 2017) was a Spanish prosecutor, judge, criminologist and writer. He served as the 89th Attorney General of Spain from November 2016 until his death on 18 November 2017. Legal career He ...

laid charges of

rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, estab ...

and misuse of public funds at the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

against Corominas and five other members of the

Board of the Parliament of Catalonia The Board of the Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Mesa del Parlament) is the body responsible for the management of the Parliament of Catalonia. It is composed of the President of the Parliament of Catalonia, President of the Parliament, the two Vi ...

(

Ramona Barrufet Ramona Barrufet i Santacana (born 1959) is a Spanish Catalan teacher and politician who has been a deputy in the Parliament of Catalonia for the IX, X and XI legislatures and has been the Fourth Secretary on the Parliament's Board since 2015 un ...

Carme Forcadell Maria Carme Forcadell i Lluís (born 29 May 1955) is a Spanish politician from Catalonia. She is the former President of the Parliament of Catalonia, as well as a Catalan high school teacher, known for her Catalan independence activism. She was ...

, Lluís Guinó,

Joan Josep Nuet Joan Josep Nuet i Pujals (born 6 August 1964) is a Spanish politician from Catalonia who currently serves as Member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain. He was previously a member of the Senate of Spain and the Parliament of Catalonia. A memb ...

and

Anna Simó Anna Simó i Castelló (born 26 July 1968) is a Spanish Catalan politician. A member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), she became the Minister of Social Welfare and Family Affairs of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2003 as part of the fi ...

). Corominas was charged despite not being a member of the board at the time of the declaration of independence. The charges carried maximum sentences of 30, 15 and 6 years in prison respectively. Corominas and the other members of the board appeared before Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena on 9 November 2017. Nuet was released without any precautionary measures but the other five had to pay bail (€100,000 for Forcadell, €25,000 each for Barrufet, Corominas, Guinó and Simó), surrender their passport and present themselves at a court weekly. The bail bonds were paid by the

Catalan National Assembly The Assemblea Nacional Catalana ("Catalan National Assembly"; ANC by its Catalan acronym) is an organization that seeks the political independence of Catalonia from Spain. It also promotes the independence of other Catalan-speaking regions, which ...

. After a four-month judicial investigation into the referendum and declaration of independence Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena issued a 70-page ruling on 23 March 2018 in which he ordered that 25 of the 28 Catalan politicians and activists under investigation be tried for rebellion, embezzlement or disobedience. Corominas was charged with disobeying an order of the Constitutional Court (article 410 of the criminal code). A pre-trial hearing commenced on 18 December 2018 at the Supreme Court at which defence lawyers argued that the court was not competent to hear charges of rebellion or disobedience and that it should be heard at the High Court of Justice of Catalonia. On 27 December 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that, although they were competent to hear all the charges, the six defendants charged only with disobedience (Barrufet,

Mireia Boya Mireia Boya Busquet (born 1979) is a Catalan scientist, activist, and politician from Spain. She is a councilor of the Aran municipality of Les. Since February 2018 she has been part of the national secretariat of the Popular Unity Candidacy (C ...

, Corominas, Guinó, Nuet and Simó) would be tried at the High Court of Justice of Catalonia.

Personal life

Corominas is married and has two daughters. He was a basketball player and has coached a women's basketball team in Castellar.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corominas, Lluís 1963 births Autonomous University of Barcelona alumni Catalan European Democratic Party politicians Lawyers from Catalonia Convergence and Union politicians Democratic Convergence of Catalonia politicians First Vice-Presidents of the Parliament of Catalonia Living people Mayors of places in Catalonia Members of the 7th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 8th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 9th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 10th Parliament of Catalonia Members of the 11th Parliament of Catalonia Municipal councillors in the province of Barcelona People from Vallès Occidental Second Vice-Presidents of the Parliament of Catalonia